1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a powder supply unit wherein powder is stirred by rotation of a rotating member such as an agitator or the like in a vessel in which the powder is stored and wherein the powder is transported to a powder supplying hole, a manufacturing method of the powder supply unit, and a recycling method of the powder supply unit.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, widely used is an image formation apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and the like, having a photosensitive drum, a developing device (powder supply unit) which has an accommodating part in which toner is accommodated and which sends out toner from an outlet provided at the front thereof to supply it to the photosensitive drum, a charging device, a transfer device of toner to paper, a cleaning device, and a fixation device for performing fixation to paper.
The photosensitive drum, developing device, charging device, and cleaning device are fabricated as a unit, and are provided as a process cartridge in an exchangeable manner.
In the process cartridge, provided is an agitator as a stirring/transporting means which stirs toner in the accommodating part and in which a toner stirring means and a toner transporting means for transporting toner to an outlet are integrally formed.
Here, as a first example of the agitator, proposed is an agitator which has a stirring member attached to a rotation drive shaft and a transportation sheet attached to one end of the stirring member and in which a thin plate metal member is employed for the transportation sheet to promote an elasticity restoring force against curvature deformation in order to prevent a toner transport force from being deteriorated.
However, in the agitator described above in the paragraph, although it is advantageous because it does not have a weakness for bending at the time of preservation as in the case of a film sheet, since a metal member is employed for the transportation sheet, it costs more compared to an ordinary film sheet. Further, since it is a metal member, a fold and the like is easy to be made at the time of manufacturing, and there is a problem of non-uniformity in the toner transportation.
As a second example of the agitator, proposed is an agitator which has a rotating member and a sheet member for stirring and transporting toner and in which the rotating member and sheet member are distinct bodies before use such that when the rotating member rotates at the time of start of use, the rotating member is coupled with the sheet member to become a unit.
However, in the agitator described above in the paragraph, since there is play in the coupling part of the rotating member and the sheet member, the sheet member moves in a direction of an angle in which the sheet member moves out of the toner transporting direction, whereby there are problems that toner transportation performance cannot be sufficiently ensured, and the amount of remaining toner becomes large.
As a third example of the agitator, proposed is an agitator which is provided with a sliding member having a small frictional resistance on a distal end of the transportation sheet and in which the transportation sheet is set so as to be larger than the rotation radius of the stirring member and so as to have a length to slide on the inner wall of a toner replenishment vessel.
However, in the agitator described above in the paragraph, the sliding member has to be attached to the distal end portion that is folded and bent, so high fabrication accuracy is required giving poor assembleability, whereby there is a problem that manufacturing costs become high. Further, when there is a defect in attaching of the sliding member, there is a problem that deficiencies in toner transportation occur.